FoA Chapter 20

Gurlberg doesn’t have any nice restaurants. It has one or two halfway respectable places, and one or two that are kind of trendy, but they’re more like quick dining. For a date like this, you want the quiet and intimacy of sitting down, and that means going to Pirate Booty.

Even though Gurlberg is in Central Florida and nowhere near the coast, in some ways it pretends to be a beach town. Pirate Booty is into that. They even make the waitresses wear bandanas on their heads. It’s overpriced and not that good, but because it’s a tourist trap, it’s always clean. It’s sad, but this is where you can take a girl on a date and have a somewhat quiet meal.

The hardest part about tonight was deciding what to wear. You have one shirt that has buttons. It’s gray. So you’re wearing that with your pair of jeans that looks the least like it’s been on the floor of a mechanic’s shop.

Of course, Riley wears a fucking dress. Not a super fancy one, just a little blue, summery one. You’ve never seen her with her hair down and makeup before. She looks like a totally different person. Weirdly, you never thought freckles were cute before you met her.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like in a soccer team’s locker room?” Riley is asking you.

“I think I would like it,” you say honestly.

“No. It’s not like that. You can’t just pop a woody and tell everyone how smoking hot they are. Like, do I like seeing all this sweaty, athletic nudity? Yes. But it’s just…” She trails off, rolling her eyes. “It’s annoying. It actually sucks.”

You feel for her. “Is there anyone on the team like you?”

“Yeah, but they’re cooler than me. They can have it out without getting hard,” she says bitterly.

You laugh. “Honest body, huh?”

“I’m always honest,” she says with a smile, eating a French fry.

“I wish I could say that,” you reply.

“There you go with your criminal stuff. Adella, I grew up in Gurlberg. Free Gurls has always been here. They’ve never done anything bad.”

Maybe not that Riley knows about.

“Right,” you say, smiling back at her. “You’re right.”

“What made you want to join them?” she asks.

You shrug. “I like riding bikes.” You gaze across the table at her. “I like that they don’t judge anyone.”

“Neither does CCL,” Riley replies, her eyes on her plate. She lowers her voice. “I feel like I spent my whole life keeping secrets. They don’t do that there. At least, not the way that I did. It feels like I can be the real me.” She giggles. “They’re even pervier over there than the real me.”

“Did you have a good time last night?” you ask.

“Yes and no,” she says, looking thoughtful. “It’s amazing to get to do that stuff. I mean.” She stops and looks at you. “What I did to get in. Giving a random BJ. Like it’s fun, don’t get me wrong,” she adds quickly. “I guess I’d like it better if it wasn’t a stranger. I mean, what if it was someone that I wouldn’t like? Like a big jerk or something?”

You sit there, undecided for a moment. “Yeah,” you say finally. “That makes sense.”

“You don’t think it’s weird? Having to do that to a stranger? You don’t think it’s like super slutty?”

“It wasn’t your idea. And I had to do something like that myself for a club member,” you add, sighing. “I like her. She’s cool. But I didn’t want it to be quite like that. You know?”

“I so do,” she says.

“Everyone in the club is just like me,” you tell her. “That’s why I like them.”

“You mean not just having a…” She points down, blushing.

“Not just that. Personality-wise too,” you say.

“I get that,” she says, blushing. “Are they cool?”

“Mostly,” you say. “We have one cavewoman. She’s huge. Like six feet tall. Dick like a twelve-inch sub.”

Riley chokes on her drink, trying not to laugh. “Really? That’s not hot?”

“Not really. She’s worse than me. Just a total neanderthal.”

“I don’t think you’re a neanderthal.”

“I am,” you assure her.

“OK,” she says, blushing.

“This girl, trust me. She’s gross. Especially when we have some seriously cool people to compare her to.”

“How cool?”

“Really cool,” you say, thinking of Fang, Stef, and Caroline. Even Carla. Vicky and Jan… well, you like them. And you’ve always assumed that one day you and Vicky will both be drunk and you’ll bend her over the sink in a bathroom somewhere or something, but… anyway. You focus on Riley. “Not as cool as you.”

“What?” she asks, laughing again. “Come on. I’m a fucking…” she trails off.

“What?” you ask.

“I don’t know. I just…” She doesn’t seem to know where to go with it. “Last night? That was the first time I ever did anything like that. I’ve always been such a pussy with girls.”

You feel like you have a pretty good picture of where she’s coming from. Girls like you and Riley are pretty rare. Yeah, everyone in Free Gurls is the same, but that’s what brings you together. All her life, Riley has had to hide things. If she liked guys, she would be worried that they would be turned off by her penis. If she liked girls, she would worry about the same thing. It’s not easy. You know what it’s like because you went through it yourself. You were just dumb enough to make moves when you were younger and get lucky. Riley never did that. She has no confidence, but she should have it. She’s beautiful and talented. She obviously has no idea how much of a catch she is.

Not that you have caught her. You feel like she has a picture of you in her head that is not the real thing. She thinks you are cool because you’re with Free Gurls, but Free Gurls is a mess in reality. You live in a shitty apartment, your club is about to be broke, and last night you narrowly avoided a mouthful of jizz from a fellow Free Gurl. It likely goes both ways. CCL house is probably a disaster of nonstop drama.

“Don’t you play serious competitive sports? You have to be pretty brave to do that,” you tell her.

“I’ve been playing soccer since I was four. I’m just used to it, that’s all.”

“I hope I can see you play sometime.”

“I’m not that good.”

The university team is supposed to be quite good. Not world champions or anything, but you are pretty sure that you heard they’re the best team of their type in Florida. On the other hand, if you’d been doing something since you were four, you would be good at it too.

Come to think of it, what are you good at? But this isn’t the time to feel bad about yourself, it’s time to try to charm Riley.

“My sister’s the talented one,” she’s telling you.

You frown. Has she mentioned a sister before? No, but Mary did.

“What’s wrong?” Riley asks, seeing the look on your face.

“Does your sister have red hair like yours?” you ask, sweating.

Riley’s smile widens. “Yeah. Why? You like redheads?”

“Um,” you reply, licking your lips.

So it’s not that Riley didn’t see your face last night… Riley wasn’t there at all. It must have been the sister who watched you having sex with Mary. So did she see your face? She obviously hasn’t said anything… or does she know about you and Riley? Did she tell Riley that she just saw some woman in bed with their mom? What happens if Riley introduces you to the sister?

“Oh my God, you’re getting really pale,” Riley says worriedly.

“I’m OK. Sorry,” you say. You are going to have to talk to this girl. But how do you find her? You can’t just go to the house and ask for her. In fact, you need to stay away from that house. What if Mary’s mad at you? It was her idea, but she’d had a drink or two. She might regret it.

“Is your sister at the university?” you ask.

“No, she’s a senior in high school. She’s a waitress at the diner,” Riley says, pointing toward the window. “I think she’s working there tonight.”

Perfect! You can find the sister this way and see if she saw your face. You’ll know if you go in there; she won’t be able to hide it if she recognizes you.

“You look like you’re thinking really hard,” Riley says, watching you.

“Just wondering why someone as far out of my league as you is here with me,” you tell her.

Riley just blushes and looks down at her drink. The restaurant isn’t very crowded, and it’s nice and dim. You bet you could just lean over there and kiss her.

Your phone goes off. Someone’s calling.

“I’m sorry,” you say, taking it out to see who it is.

It’s Stef. The one person you can’t ignore.

“Shit,” you mutter. “I have to take it.”

“OK,” Riley says.

You stand up and step away. “Yeah?”

“We have a problem. You have to get over here right now,” Stef orders.